A need exists for effective and engaging educational tools to support the teaching of particular subject matter such as science, art and history, and for providing career related learning, such as military, police and fire training and for other education. The need is critical in grades K-12 where there is a teacher shortage, especially in science related subjects. There is also a need to provide additional support for online courses. Avatars called AutoTutors have been developed, but little is done to make these avatars emotionally engaging. Previous artificial intelligence systems seek responses by matching questions to a large subject world, without the use of well-planned responses to anticipated questions so that important learning goals are left unmet. Other technology employs artificial intelligence to match users' questions to anticipated questions and hence deliver the anticipated response. But such systems do not manage the conversation to insure the learning of important topics or provide the ability to assess the level of achieved learning goals. In addition, the creation of the avatar data base with the list of anticipated questions with all possible semantic equivalents, can be a very time consuming chore for the author. So, an additional need exists to provide effective tools to facilitate authoring of the data base.
Prior art patents and patent applications in this field include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,755, Method and Apparatus for Capturing and Presenting Digital Data in a Synthetic Interview.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,158,841, Methods Of Evaluating Semantic Differences, Methods Of Identifying Related Sets Of Items In Semantic Spaces, and Systems and Computer Program Products for Implementing The Same.
US Publication No. 20080120558, Systems and Methods for Managing a Persistent Virtual Avatar with Migrational Ability, published May 22, 2008.
US Publication No. 20080221892, Systems and Methods for an Autonomous Avatar Driver; published Sep. 11, 2008.
US Publication No. 20130029308, Methods and Computer Program Products for Teaching a Topic to a User, published Jan. 31, 2013.
US Publication No. 20150278820, Systems and Methods for Executing Cryptographically Secure Transactions Using Voice and Natural Language Processing; published Oct. 1, 2015.
US Publication No. 20160071302, Systems and Methods for Cinematic Direction and Dynamic Character Control Via Natural Language Output; published Mar. 10, 2016.
US Publication No. 20160098936, Educational System for Teaching Science, History and Other Subjects, Peter R. Solomon, published Apr. 7, 2016.
The objects of the present invention are to provide a learning system utilizing an interactive educational expert avatar (referred to an Expert Avatar) representing important contributors to the subject matter being taught, delivered on a computer enabled device, which can provide answers to a student's questions on the subject matter, and with the aid of learning manager software, guide and advise the student in covering important learning goals, and provide a formative assessment of the student's progress to the student and the course instructor.
The present invention is intended to apply to any teaching or training program, for academic, professional, or vocational training, at any level of education. The term “subject matter” is used herein to refer to all different areas or subjects where education, training or simply additional knowledge may be desired, and is not intended to limit the present invention to only academic educational fields of study. For example, the present invention may be used to support students of elementary, middle school, high school, university, graduate and professional schools, vocational training, or may be used to provide an informative resource or reference such as an encyclopedia, biographical database, or trivia database.
The Expert Avatar presents a historically important person, represented by a lookalike avatar in a historically appropriate setting. The Expert Avatar acts as teacher and mentor, intellectually engaging the student, but also emotionally engaging the student through gestures, facial expressions, and movements. The Expert Avatar provides responses by matching a student's question to a database of anticipated queries with pre-scripted responses. Responses will also include graphics or videos to further improve the student's understanding of the Expert Avatar's responses. Only when no match is found, does the Expert Avatar respond from a general database. The narrow focus of each Expert Avatar leads to high accuracy responses and a believable conversation. In addition to being a subject expert, the Expert Avatar will also be a role model for an important figure in the subject's area.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for creating expert avatars that is cost effective, scalable, and can encourage public contributions to the Expert Avatar knowledge base. It is a further object of the invention to have persistence of the Learning Manager memory so that the information on a student's prior knowledge and learning preferences is retained from session to session and avatar-to-avatar to further optimize the learning experience for each student. It is a further object of the invention to add game-like features to the system to attract young users and a method of accrediting the Expert Avatars to ensure accuracy of their knowledge bases.